The amazing web site of
Shakespeare's Sonnets. Industry and Idleness. Plate 4. The Industrious
Apprentice a favourite and entrusted by his Master,
by
Hogarth.

HAKESPEARE'S ONNETS

This is
part of the web site of Shakespeare's
sonnets

PICTURE
GALLERY.

William
Hogarth
1697 - 1764.

Industry
and Idleness. Plate 4. The Industrious Apprentice a Favourite and entrusted by his Master.
1747.

Hogarth
first achieved fame as an artist through his series of moralistic
engravings, commencing with A
Harlot's Progress
in 1731. This was followed by A
Rake's Progress
in 1735, Marriage
ŕ-la-mode
in 1743-5, and Industry
and Idleness in
1747
. Originally the sets of pictures were oil
paintings which
Hogarth subsequently published as engravings. However the
Industry and Idleness series was conceived entirely as a set
of engravings which were not copied from paintings. They were
put on sale for one shilling each, which is equivalent today, (2008),
to about ten pounds sterling (GBP). Evidently Hogarth was
trying
to appeal to a wider audience than the upper class wealthy who were his
usual patrons.
The Industry and Idleness series is rather crudely moralistic,
depicting how industry and virtue are rewarded with worldly success,
while idleness, corruption and vice is ultimately punished by the
gallows. Despite this rather tedious tale, which is not true
to life and simplistically misrepresents the apprenticeship system of
the time, the engravings are a superb record of both the lower and
upper end of London life of the time. The
banqueting scene of Plate 8 and the two final crowd scenes of the
Tyburn spectacle and the Lord Mayor's Parade are incomparable
and show the satirical Hogarth at his very best.

Once
again we see the interior of the Spitalfields factory. Evidently
Frank Goodchild now oversees the running of the establishment, and he
holds the keys, a money bag and the day book.
The pair of clasped gloves on the escritioire symbolise the close
friendship between him and Mr. West. A porter, wearing on his
jacket the arms of the Corporation of London, carries some rolls of
finished cloth. His bibulous, warty nose are evidence of many
hours spent conversing with jars of ale. The prominent London
Almanack shows Industry seizing Time by the forelock. Meanwhile a
cat arches up against a dog, perhaps indicative of the hostility
between Tom Idle and Frank Goodchild. In the background workers sit at looms and spinning wheels.

William Hogarth

British Artist and Engraver

Industry and
Idleness. Plate 4. The Industrious Apprentice a Favourite and entrusted by his Master.

Engraving, published 1747

Source:
Hogarth's Works published by J. Dicks, 313 The Strand, London.
Circa 1880.